{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p011","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"When you set about appealing to the child's nature in this way, you transport the child right back into earlier civilizations, for that is when writing first arose. Later the process passed into a mere convention, so that to-day we no longer recognize the connection between the abstract letter-forms and the images which arose purely as signs from the contemplation and imitation of what was observed. All letter-forms have arisen from pictorial shapes. And now think how, when you only teach the child the convention: “You are to make an *f* like this!” you are teaching him something quite disconnected, and out of its context with the human setting. Writing is then dislodged from its original setting: the artistic element. Therefore we must begin, in teaching to write, with the artistic drawing of the shapes—of the sound and letter-shapes—if we want to go so far back that the child is struck by the difference in shapes. It is not enough merely to form these shapes before the child with our mouth, for that makes people what they have become to-day. In dislodging the written shape from what is now convention and showing its original source, we compass the whole being and make it something quite different from what it would be if we simply appealed to perception. So we must not only think *in* *abstracto*. We must teach art in drawing, etc.; we must impart the psychic element in teaching arithmetic, and we must teach the conventional element of reading and writing artistically; we must permeate our whole teaching with the artistic element. Consequently, from the first we shall attach great importance to cultivating the artistic element in the child. The artistic element, as is well known, has a quite exceptional influence on the will. With its help we penetrate to something connected with the whole individual, whereas what is concerned with convention only affects the head, “head-man” (kopfmensch). Consequently, we proceed by letting every child cultivate something to do with drawing and painting. Thus we begin with drawing, the drawing-painting in the simplest way. But we begin, too, with the musical element, so that the child is accustomed from the first to handle an instrument, so that the artistic feeling is awakened in him. Then he will develop, as well, the power to feel with his whole being what is otherwise merely conventional.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. Introduction—Aphoristic remarks on Artistic Activity, Arithmetic, Reading, and Writing","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-08-21","location":null,"word_count":394,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/294/1919-08-21/p011","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Harry Collison","identified_edition":"RSPC1937","book_title":"Practical Course for Teachers","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA294/English/RSPC1937/19190821n01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p011"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/294/1919-08-21/p011","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1919-08-21","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p009"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":400,"en_words":394,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Wenn Sie in dieser Weise beginnen, an die Natur des Kindes zu appellieren, so versetzen Sie das Kind richtig zurück in frühere Kulturepochen, denn so ist das Schreiben ursprünglich entstanden. Später ist der Vorgang nur in Konvention übergegangen, so daß wir heute nicht mehr den Zusammenhang erkennen zwischen den abstrakten Buchstabenformen und den Bildern, die rein zeichnerisch hervorgegangen sind aus der Anschauung und aus der Nachahmung der Anschauung. Alle Buchstabenformen sind aus solchen Bildformen entstanden. Und nun denken Sie sich, wenn Sie dem Kinde nur die Konvention beibringen: Du sollst das f so machen! — dann bringen Sie ihm etwas ganz Abgeleitetes bei, herausgehoben aus dem menschlichen Zusammenhang. Dann ist das Schreiben herausgehoben aus dem, woraus es entstanden ist: aus dem Künstlerischen. Und daher müssen wir, wenn wir Schreiben unterrichten, mit dem künstlerischen Zeichnen der Formen, der LautBuchstabenformen beginnen, wenn wir so weit zurückgehen wollen, daß das Kind ergriffen wird von dem Unterschiede der Formen. Es genügt nicht, daß wir das dem Kinde bloß mit dem Munde vorsagen, denn das macht die Menschen zu dem, wozu sie heute geworden sind. Indem wir die Schriftform herausheben aus dem, was heute Konvention ist und zeigen, woraus sie hervorgequollen ist, ergreifen wir den ganzen Menschen und machen aus ihm etwas ganz anderes, als wir aus ihm machen würden, wenn wir bloß an sein Erkennen appellieren. Daher dürfen wir nicht bloß in abstracto denken: Wir müssen Kunst lehren im Zeichnen und so weiter, wir müssen Seelisches lehren im Rechnen, und wir müssen auf künstlerische Art Konventionelles lehren im Lesen und Schreiben; wir müssen den ganzen Unterricht durchdringen mit einem künstlerischen Element. Daher werden wir von Anfang an einen großen Wert darauf zu legen haben, daß wir das Künstlerische im Kinde pflegen. Das Künstlerische wirkt ja ganz besonders auf die Willensnatur des Menschen. Dadurch dringen wir zu etwas vor, das mit dem ganzen Menschen zusammenhängt, während das, was mit dem Konventionellen zusammenhängt, nur mit dem Kopfmenschen zu tun hat. Daher werden wir so vorgehen, daß wir jedes Kind etwas Zeichnerisches und etwas Malerisches pflegen lassen. Wir beginnen also mit dem Zeichnerischen und Zeichnerisch-Malerischen in der einfachsten Weise. Aber auch mit Musikalischem beginnen wir, so daß das Kind sich von Anfang an gewöhnt, gleich irgendein Instrument zu handhaben, damit künstlerisches Gefühl in dem Kinde belebt werde. Dann wird es auch Gefühl dafür bekommen, etwas aus dem ganzen Menschen heraus zu fühlen, was sonst nur konventionell ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":400,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p009"}],"english":["GA 294/1919-08-21/p011"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":400,"en_words":394,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5570,"original_word_count":5396,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Harry Collison","identified_edition":"RSPC1937","book_title":"Practical Course for Teachers","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA294/English/RSPC1937/19190821n01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 294/1919-08-21/p009"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}